Free Republic

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a lengthy statement Friday suggested that the prosecution of rioters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, might be politically motivated, partly aligning himself with the false portrayal being pushed by former President Donald Trump and his allies.

Unhappy that their favorite whipping boy is still in charge of the IRS, House Republicans asked President Donald Trump on Wednesday to fire Commissioner John Koskinen. Fifteen Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee sent Trump a letter asking him to can Koskinen. They said trust in the IRS has hit rock bottom and that under Koskinen, the IRS destroyed evidence when Congress was investigating the tax agency for inappropriately singling out conservative groups for extra scrutiny. “He also misled Congress in the process, intentionally degraded customer service at the agency, and has since lost the trust of the...

The Pope has endorsed Donald Trump for president. A Washington, DC, pizzeria is a front for a child sex abuse ring. George Soros will “bring down” the U.S. by funding “black hate groups.” These are just some examples of viral stories circulated on social media recently that are completely untrue. Facebook on Thursday announced some steps it’s taking to stop the spread of such “fake news” on its huge social network. This includes working with outside fact-checking organizations and drying up financial incentives to what it calls the “worst of the worst” spammers that traffic in made-up stories. But there...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Delta Air Lines is apologizing for not removing a passenger from a flight to Pennsylvania who professed his support for President- elect Donald Trump, and insulted those who didn’t. The Allentown Morning Call first reported on a video posted on Facebook by a fellow passenger on the Tuesday flight from Atlanta to Allentown. The video shows the man standing in the aisle, yelling and insulting Hillary Clinton supporters. In the video, the man asks loudly: “We got some Hillary bitches on here?”

A new report suggests a “sophisticated” Russian propaganda campaign helped flood social media with fake news stories leading up to the presidential election. The Washington Post, citing a yet-to-be published report from independent researchers, said the goal was to punish Hillary Clinton, help Donald Trump, and undermine faith in American democracy. The report comes from a nonpartisan group of researchers called PropOrNot. The group describes itself as “concerned American citizens” with expertise in computer science, national security and public policy. The researchers say they traced the origins of posts and mapped the connections among accounts that delivered similar messages. …

President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington might make it difficult for him to fill all the jobs in his administration. Trump’s ethics plan would ban all executive-branch officials from lobbying for five years after leaving their government jobs — one of several policies aimed at curbing the influence of lobbyists. His campaign released his plan about three weeks before Election Day, and “drain the swamp” quickly became a favorite rallying cry and social media hashtag. The ban also applies to the transition team members charged with helping to find, vet and hire for the incoming...

Some Republican lawmakers seem to be trying to delegitimize a Hillary Clinton presidency before it’s clear there will be one. They are threatening to block her Supreme Court nominees, investigate her endlessly, or even impeach her. Perhaps it’s no surprise in an election in which the GOP nominee, Donald Trump, has branded his opponent “Crooked Hillary,” and shouts of “lock her up!” are a staple at his rallies. Few Republicans appear eager to suggest a new era of bipartisan deal-making with a candidate widely seen by GOP voters as untrustworthy. But the rhetoric is striking because newly elected presidents traditionally...

Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump in three debates. She leads in many preference polls of the most competitive states. Barring a significant shift in the next two weeks, she is in a strong position to become the first woman elected U.S. president. But Clinton will end the campaign still struggling to change the minds of millions of voters who don’t think well of her, a glaring liability should the Democratic nominee move on to the White House. While many see her as better prepared to be commander in chief than Trump, she is consistently viewed unfavorably by more than half...

Lawmakers return to Washington this week for an abbreviated election-season session in which they will likely do what they do best: the bare minimum. All Congress must do this month is keep the government from shutting down on Oct. 1 and, with any luck, finally provide money for the fight against the mosquito-borne Zika virus. Republicans controlling Congress promise they won’t stumble now, but the weeks ahead could prove tricky. A chief motivation for the September session, especially for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is allowing lawmakers to return to campaigning as soon as possible. Republicans are scrambling to...

It’s the Goldilocks conundrum of American politics: Is the federal government too big, too small or just right? Few think it’s just right. Ever since the first Americans bucked their colonial overlords in Britain, America has been wrestling with the delicate balance between a government that creates opportunity and one that inhibits it. Every four years, the presidential election offers a referendum on whether Washington should do more or less. Traditionally, Republicans have been viewed as the party of smaller government. This year, it’s not so simple. …

The Common Core State Standards have been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia with the goal of better preparing the nation’s students for college or a job. Despite their widespread adoption, many parents don’t know what the standards are or whether their state has adopted them, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. The new standards establish benchmarks for reading and math, replacing education goals that varied widely from state to state. Although the federal government was not involved in creating them, it has encouraged the state-led project. Supporters say the standards will...

The Obama administration criticized Israel for designating two shrines on Palestinian territory as Israeli national heritage sites. The criticism came as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she hopes long-stalled peace talks between Israelis and the Palestinians will resume. Clinton told a congressional committee that groundwork is being laid to restart the talks with the help of US envoy George Mitchell. Toner said US displeasure with the designations of the Cave of the Patriarchs in the flash point town of Hebron and the traditional tomb of the biblical matriarch Rachel in Bethlehem had been conveyed to senior Israeli...

A Supreme Court judge cleared Honduras' military commanders Tuesday in the coup that toppled Manuel Zelaya, and hours later lawmakers approved amnesty for the ousted leader and all those involved in his removal. The two measures — combined with Wednesday's inauguration of a new president, conservative rancher Porfirio Lobo — appeared to spell the last chapter in the bitter political dispute that led to Honduras' international isolation. Supreme Court President Jorge Rivera ruled the country's top generals did not abuse their power in ordering soldiers to escort Zelaya out of the country at gunpoint June 28. "Prosecutors failed to prove...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Budget deficits are in the stratosphere. Unemployment has hit 10 percent. The health care overhaul is incomplete. Still, Americans appear to like President Barack Obama and the way he's doing his job. The latest Associated Press-Gfk poll shows the president's popularity holding steady, with 56 percent of those polled approving of the way he's taking care of the country's business. His marks for handling the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan have jumped by double digits, with more than half now approving, since he capped a three-month strategy review by announcing a big troop increase. But despite his prime-time...

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) — Ousted President Manuel Zelaya is set to return to Honduras on Sunday, a week after the army threw him out, amid fears of clashes after coup leaders threatened to arrest him on his return. The Organization of American States suspended the Central American country late Saturday -- in the first such move since the exclusion of Cuba in 1962 -- for failing to reinstate Zelaya. (snip)

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras' Supreme Court rebuffed a personal appeal from the Americas' top international diplomat Friday, refusing to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya before a Saturday deadline. Jose Miguel Insulza, who heads the Organization of American States, flew to Honduras in an attempt to persuade the forces that ousted Zelaya to take him back in the face of overwhelming international condemnation and economic sanctions. He met for two hours with Jorge Rivera, president of the Supreme Court that authorized the military to seize Zelaya on Sunday and fly him into exile.

The Vatican said Monday that President Barack Obama was clearly looking for some common ground with his speech at the University of Notre Dame about abortion. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said Obama's speech at the leading Catholic university on Sunday confirmed what he had said at a recent news conference — that signing the so-called Freedom of Choice Act in the U.S. Congress wasn't his highest legislative priority. The bill would protect a woman's right to have a child or end a pregnancy. Obama's stance on the issue is that he supports abortion rights but says the procedure should...

WASHINGTON - From Iraq to deficits, from immigration to port security, some of the most pointed criticism leveled at President Bush is coming from within his own party. Republicans these days are almost sounding like perennially divided Democrats. The rising GOP angst stems from Bush's deep slump in the polls and the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war. But it also reflects a political reawakening as Republicans follow their own political interests in this midterm election year and as would-be 2008 presidential contenders seek ways to set themselves apart — from each other and from Bush. "It's open season on...

Santorum Critical Of Bush, War In Iraq (AP) PHILADELPHIA Sen. Rick Santorum took a rare swing at President Bush, saying the war in Iraq has been less than optimal and that some blame for that lies with the White House. Santorum, a conservative Republican and usually a strong Bush ally, said the unpopularity of the war should be shared between the White House and the media. “Certainly, mistakes were made,” Santorum said of the war’s conduct. “But that’s a criticism you can make of every conflict.” The comments, made after a Veterans Day speech at the Union League in Philadelphia...

President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks. "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq. "To the extent the federal government didn't fully do it's job right, I take responsibility," Bush said. The president was asked whether people should be worried about the government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures in...